Acyclic graphs can be transmitted from one computer to another in a top-down fashion. This has the advantage that the receiving computer's application can commence processing the graph before it has been completely received.
The receiving computer will create nodes before the nodes they reference have been created, so when a node is created it is necessary to update the nodes that reference it. The transmitting computer therefore needs to instruct the receiving computer as to the location of the nodes that need updating by providing a reference to them. This puts limitations on how the memory of the receiving computer can be used, which in turn restricts how an application can run on the receiving computer, until the data structure is complete.
It is an object of embodiments of the invention to provide a method of transferring a data structure between computers which allows efficient use of computer memory resources and, in particular, allows an application running on a receiving computer to use memory resources while processing a data structure which is being received, without needing memory allocation strategies that result in poor utilisation.